We decided on roast lamb for Sunday roast dinner yesterday and boy did it go down well!

I loosely based it on a recipe my mum used to make, but this one was too good to forget so I’m going to write it down and share it with everyone else.

I’m not going to state specific amounts of ingredients as everyone’s requirements are different, plus cooking isn’t about following instructions it’s about being creative so you can adjust the following to your own taste.

I’m also not going say what to have with this recipe, bit I highly recommend some roast potatoes, roast honey carrots and steamed greens with this lamb.

By the way, this method (before the cooking stage) is best done the night before, or even a couple days before you intend to eat. This allows the meat to properly soak up the sherry and get so tasty!

You’ll need:

Some lamb – I used a half leg joint, 1.241kg

Home made garlic butter, softened out of the fridge.

Fresh rosemary from the garden

A dry fino sherry

Some boiling water

Some coarse cornish sea salt

Pepper from the mill

Fresh garlic – I used 3 large cloves

1 large lemon, halved.

Method:

Cut your rosemary into about 20 x 2″ lengths and set aside.

Chop each end off each clove, then take your knife and crush it by placing the side of the knife on top of the clove and using the ball of your hand to apply pressure. You can now easily peal your garlic.

With a sharp knife, make 20 deep cuts all over the joint evenly spaced on the top and sides.

With your finger stuff the holes with a piece of rosemary and a piece of garlic in each. If there’s any garlic left sprinkle it into the roasting tin.

Now, with a teaspoon, coat the meat in an even layer of the garlic butter.

Get your sherry and gently pour it all over the joint. Make sure you open the cuts in the meat to allow it to fill the holes with the rosemary and garlic. It should fill the roasting tin about 1.5cm up the bottom of the joint.

Squeeze each half of the lemon over the joint and place the remains in the roasting tin.

Now sprinkle your salt and pepper over the meat to your own taste.

Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours, preferably 24 hours. This is how mine looked before chilling:

Cook the joint as per instructions. In my case 40 minutes per 500 at 180 degrees Celsius,this worked out to 99 minutes.

Half way through top up the liquid in the roasting tin with boiling water, this will make excellent gravy!

I hope you have a great time cooking this lamb, it was very tasty for us.

“It’s easier to be alone. Because what if you learn that you need love and then you don’t have it? What if you like it and lean on it? What if you shape your life around it and then It falls apart? Can you even survive that kind of pain? Losing love is like organ damage. It’s like dying. The only difference is death ends. This? It could go on forever.”

If there’s one thing I have noticed while trying to get an invite to buy a One Plus One is that One Plus are going to make you work for it.

Recently they have been rolling out large batches of invites prior to their new pre-ordering system which has made it easier for a lot to get an invite, in fact this is how I have managed to get mine too. All you need to do is know what is going on and be prepared to drop what you are doing and dash to your computer. Keeping your phone on you at all times is essential.

The following is a list of tools you will need in order to succeed, if you miss one out you risk missing one of One Plus’s clues. Bear in mind I am not an iPhone user so if you are you may need to tweak this plan for it to work effectively with your tech. Oh and congratulations on converting if you are moving away from iPhone!

Bookkeeping at its best

“A double-entry bookkeeping system is a set of rules for recording financial information in a financial accounting system in which every transaction or event changes at least two different nominal ledger accounts.” This system has been around since the 14th century and was first published by Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan friar in the 15th century. Merchants in Venice were among the first to fully integrate their bookkeeping systems with this practice.

All of today’s popular bookkeeping and accounting software packages use the double-entry system which is far less exhausting than it was when entries were made in multiple journals with pens. The system is very effective and ensures the integrity of the bookkeeping with simple checks and balances. However, even with today’s software, errors can occur if the chart of accounts is not created accurately. There is also the element of human error that even with…

Oh yes, it’s that time of year again, the beginning of the year where we all look back on last and wonder did we fulfil any of the promises we made to ourselves a year ago. I think there will be a common outcome of not likely!

If I’m honest I didn’t make any new year’s resolutions last year, I wasn’t in the best place and didn’t feel confident enough with myself to stick to them, however, things have changed in the months leading up to now and I am ready to start 2014 on a positive note, so this post will be about the new year’s resolutions I feel are real, achievable and essential as this year is the beginning of the rest of my life🙂

Resolution one – to finish what I have started.

I started a learn at home course on becoming a fully qualified bookkeeper back about 3 years ago. I am very proud to say I have completed 75% of it, however, I have failed to complete the rest of it because of a mix of work, play, holidays and most probably laziness. Continue reading “2014 – How can I better myself this year?”